The group that powered Joe Miller, Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell to Republican primary victories is back in action. Tea Party Express, the California-based political action committee, has endorsed Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock in his bid to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar. In a statement Thursday, Tea Party Express chair Amy Kremer said Mourdock was a “true conservative.” “He understands the importance of putting an end to Washington's wild spending and skyrocketing debt,” Kremer said.

Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday lashed out at Republicans and called the new crop of conservative Senate candidates extremists who represent a sharp break with the party’s traditions. Campaigning in Nevada for Sen. Harry Reid, running slightly behind "tea party" movement favorite Sharron Angle, Biden sounded what has become one of the Democrats' main tropes in this midterm election cycle: The tea party has pushed the GOP too far to the right. “If in fact, Harry’s opponent were unique,” Biden said, “You’d say, OK, it doesn’t matter a whole lot. “It matters a whole lot to the people of Nevada but, It doesn’t matter a whole lot to America,” Biden said.

Rep. Dean Heller of Nevada moved quickly Tuesday to try and fill the space left by the retiring Sen. John Ensign, announcing his bid to replace the embattled Republican. Heller, 50, who just began his fourth term in Congress, cited hard economic times in his Nevada in his statement. The unemployment rate in the state is 14% and it has been hammered by foreclosures. He signaled that he’ll run as a fiscal conservative, saying he was the only member of the Nevada congressional delegation to vote against the Wall Street bailout” in 2007 and 2008.

Occupy Wall Street is not likely to have the kind of effect on Democratic politics that the "tea party" movement has had in the GOP, a leading Democratic strategist said Thursday. Still, you can expect to hear Democrats focusing on some of the issues that have driven the nationwide gatherings, at least in Senate races in 2012. "Part of the reason I think the Occupy Wall Street movement is popular is because there is a general frustration with the growing income disparity in this country," Guy Cecil, the executive director of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, told reporters at a breakfast gathering hosted by the centrist think tank Third Way. "This frustration exists far beyond just the folks that come out ... for Occupy Wall Street.

Sen. John McCain on Wednesday took on conservatives reluctant to raise the national debt ceiling, calling them "tea party hobbits" and saying that if they reject the House Republican plan, they will help reelect President Obama. At times reading from a Wall Street Journal editorial during his floor speech, the Arizona Republican also ridiculed Democrats, saying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan is "full of smoke and mirrors. " But he directed the most biting sarcasm at his own party.

It's a race in Nevada. Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley is climbing into the ring to square off against Rep. Dean Heller, a Republican, in a battle for the retiring John Ensign's Senate seat. In a release, Berkley, who has represented her Las Vegas-area district for 12 years, blasted the GOP budget plan in the House that targets Medicare and Medicaid, a refrain voters are likely to hear again and again in the coming months. "This race is about a clear choice for Nevada’s future," Berkley said.

Throwing Nevada's special House race wide open, the state's election arbiter announced ground rules Monday that would allow any interested candidate to pursue the congressional seat — a tentative victory for Democrats. Democrats wanted a crowded field, which could splinter the Republican vote in a district where the GOP holds a modest registration advantage. Republicans wished to narrow the competition and place the nominating process in the hands of party insiders, who signaled their intention to pass over Sharron Angle, a "tea party" favorite who has already started running.

Welcome to the season when demons run amok. No, not Halloween, the midterm election cycle. The favorability rating for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, demonized for years but whose very name has become a Republican curse in this midterm election, hit a new low of just 29% while 56% said they view her unfavorably, according a Gallup poll released on Wednesday. When the California congresswoman became speaker in January of 2007, her favorability rating was at 44%, about double her negatives.

On a recent Saturday, Ken Adams and Ronald Ramsey went door-to-door in Las Vegas, canvassing for Harry Reid. They carried a map of Democratic households and a set of poll-tested talking points, including the senator's achievements ("$540 million for a brand new VA hospital") and jabs at Republican rival Sharron Angle, who spoke of privatizing the Department of Veterans Affairs (on public radio in May, if anyone asked). A woman in pajamas promised to cast a straight-party ballot.